


Field of Love

by merycula (thanksillpass)



Series: Kiseki no Cafe [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 15:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thanksillpass/pseuds/merycula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was barely noon and Kagami already wished he was home, nursing a cold beer after a lukewarm shower. Honestly, that vision was the only thing keeping him sane all morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Field of Love

**Author's Note:**

> did you know F.O.V meant field of vision because i didn't what a loser

It was barely noon and Kagami already wished he was home, nursing a cold beer after a lukewarm shower. Honestly, that vision was the only thing keeping him sane all morning. He disliked Mondays, which was probably a remnant of his American upbringing, judging by how his coworkers seemed completely unaffected by it. Additionally, the place was unusually crowded for a Monday (it was Kise’s day off) and it would be simply unmanageable if it was only him and Kuroko left in the café. Kagami wasn’t the biggest fan of Takao, but he was sure glad she came back to work so soon after being released from the hospital – to a certain point, of course.

“Kuroko, my man,” she drawled in a that annoying voice of hers, making Kagami shudder. “Is this crowd for me?”

“Most certainly, Kazu-san,” replied Kuroko flatly. “Everyone is ecstatic about your remarkable recovery.”

When Takao laughed obnoxiously at Kuroko’s formalness and reminded him to call her Takao, Taiga couldn’t help but to roll his eyes. Midorima’s annoyed click of tongue lifted his spirits a bit, though, and he sauntered over to his table to offer him a bonding refill. He hated Midorima as much as the next guy (he wasn’t _that_ much of an idiot not to see he was simply an evil, evil person) but they seemed to, on occasion, share similar attitude towards Takao – or at least to her suspicious interactions with Kuroko.

Suddenly, it occurred to Kagami that, while he and everyone else except Kuroko agreed to calling the woman by her nickname, no one has ever learned the reasoning behind it.

“Why Takao?” he asked on an impulse instead of offering a greeting.

“Because she’s a shipwreck,” said Midorima, purposefully raising his voice and doing little to hide his distaste.

Taiga turned around to see the reaction, but Takao simply winked at Midorima and blew him a kiss before flipping him off. He turned his head back to Midorima and wanted to nod in understanding but he only scratched his cheek in confusion. He wasn’t exactly a genius, and Midorima wasn’t exactly clear on his meaning.

“Uh, I’m not sure I get that reference,” he confessed.

“That’s because you’re a returnee and an idiot. Read a book.”

Taiga gaped as Midorima unceremoniously buried his ugly bespectacled face in a textbook. He growled, angry at himself for trying to be a bigger man _again_ and giving Midorima another chance to be a decent person, and stomped off on legs shaking with anger.

Kuroko had always told him he was too kind to people, but that didn’t make sense considering the fact that it was Kuroko who refused to agree to firing damn Kise. He wasn’t even a co-owner or anything, he had no power, so why would Kagami even list- _Oh._ Right. Kuroko might have had a point.

Suddenly depressed with the realization he was a big useless softy, Taiga glared at the back of unsuspecting Kuroko’s head like it was somehow his fault. He was pretty sure it was, anyway.

When the shop has mercifully emptied a bit after a while, and Kagami was ready to take a break and a burger of fifteen, two middle-school kids suddenly burst in, one of them yelling excitedly. Seeing that the source of noise was his kid brother, Taiga almost collapsed on the spot.

“Tatsuya?! Why aren’t you in school?!”

His brother started explaining something about Akashi-sensei going crazy and school being closed, which he supposed was really bad, but Taiga couldn't exactly focus on Tatsuya’s words. Not only a couple of customers had just walked in and Kagami’s phone went off (probably school), but he had to keep swatting Tatsuya’s friend’s hand away from the cookie jar and sticking out his tongue childishly back at the kid. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t stand the brat – Murasakibara Atsushi was lazy and mean and Kagami had literally no idea what his brother saw in him that the rest of the world couldn’t.

“Kuroko, help,” he gasped to himself in desperation, overwhelmed by the situation.

“Take the call, Kagami-kun,” said Kuroko suddenly materializing next to him.

Taiga would yell at his friend for startling him, but he was to grateful to him for casting some sort of magic spell on his bother, who immediately fell silent, when Takao rushed to the patrons.

When Taiga came back to the shop after having the most mortifying conversation of his life, Tatsuya and Murasakibara were talking to the ever-patient Kuroko and extremely amused Takao. As for Kagami, he was definitely nothing even remotely close to amused.

“Why did you lie, Tatsuya?” he asked, perhaps more harshly than he intended.

His brother shrunk in on himself and dropped his eyes, desperately clutching at Murasakibara’s hand. His friend looked bored and inconvenienced as he cast a glance at their linked hands, but he eventually dropped his eyes and squeezed his hand back, which apparently gave Tatsuya courage to speak up. Kagami always thought he could understand many things, but those kids’ friendship made absolutely no sense to him.

“He was being mean to Atsushi,” announced Tatsuya with his chin high.

Taiga sighed. “So you just- walked out? You can’t do that, Tatsuya… The school is responsible for you, what if something happened to you on your way here?”

“He had _scissors,_ Taiga! What if something happened to me in _school?!”_

“Don’t be a smart-ass, kid,” he snapped, rubbing his temples. “You can’t do that again, period. Understood?”

Tatsuya whined, sending pleading looks to everyone around. When that failed, he started loudly chattering away about the monster of an art teacher they have and how awful he always is to “his Atsushi.” From what Kagami remembered from parent-teacher conferences, Tatsuya wasn’t exaggerating much, but it was still no reason to act so irresponsibly. Taiga felt himself starting to get a headache from the constant noise and stress and general Monday-ness.

“What is this ruckus?” yelled Midorima suddenly, effectively shutting Kagami’s brother. “I come here for peace and quiet and I resent those children’s presence!”

Taiga was torn between being grateful for a moment of quiet to collect his thoughts and protecting his brother. Thankfully, Takao rushed to the rescue, puffing her chest and resting her fists on her hips.

“Oh, stuff it, Shin-chan,” she snapped. “Don’t you have classes to get to?”

Midorima narrowed his eyes at her. “I curse the day you came back to work at this establishment,” he seethed, gathering his textbooks. “I will never come back here.”

“Ye, ye, love you too,” she said dismissively, waving her hand at Midorima who was currently opening the door to leave. “See you at home!”

By the time Kagami wrapped his head around everything happening to him all at once, Kuroko was sitting Tatsuya and Murasakibara at the table, serving them ice cream. Takao suddenly placed a cup of coffee in front of him, smiling all smugly like some hero who had just saved the day, which made Taiga cringe involuntarily. True, she did get rid of Midorima, but it wasn’t like she was a much better alternative in his his opinion.

“The fact your whole right-after-high-school-marriage works defies all logic, you know that?” he muttered.

“Ah, Kagami, you charmer!” she cooed. “Shin-chan and I were fated by stars! I’m so glad you see that! I’m not gonna take your shift though. I don’t care if you have to go to school, I’m finishing work in exactly eighteen minutes. I’m still recovering, you know. _Unless,_ you want marital advice? Finally tying the knot?”

Taiga rubbed his forehead and sighed, reluctantly agreeing with Midorima again. Takao coming back to work was a curse. She wasn’t exactly a bad person, not in the way Midorima was. She was just all flirty and confident and loud and Kagami was _pretty_ sure she laughed at the doctors when she was born instead of crying like a normal baby. Plus, she was almost as nosy as Kise.

“Why does everyone keep asking that,” he mumbled into his coffee.

Takao smirked knowingly. “If by everyone you mean Kise, he’s just lonely.”

“He’s got a boyfriend now,” he replied, ignoring Takao’s implications about his incredibly narrow circle of friends.

“Lies!” gasped Takao around a stunned grin, slamming her hand on the counter. “Shin-chan never tells me anything… What else did I miss because of a broken leg?! _Are_ you tying the knot?!”

“God, pipe down, would you? When will this day end…”

The supposedly sympathetic pat on the back Takao offered was so enthusiastic that Taiga spilled his coffee, making the culprit howl with laughter.  He growled and the only thing that stopped him from breaking Takao’s other leg was Kuroko’s hand on his shoulder. Ironically, instead of aggravating him more, the sudden touch seemed to relieve him of the tension.

He let his shoulders sag and his head fall down against Kuroko’s shoulder behind him, enjoying the way Kuroko’s fingers wound up in his hair, gently scraping his scalp. Takao cleared her throat inconspicuously and winked at him before walking over to the kids. Kagami rolled his eyes and sighed, focusing on the relaxing feeling of Kuroko’s fingers rubbing his head.

“Do you want me to call Kise-kun and tell him I burned my hand?” asked Kuroko. “He’ll be here in ten minutes. You could take Tatsuya-kun home.”

Taiga smirked, because it _was_ tempting. “I can’t talk to him right now, I’m too wound up.”

When Kuroko pushed him off, he whined in disappointment, but when his hands squeezed his tense shoulders, a shameless moan escaped him. He immediately clasped his hand on his mouth, darting his eyes to his brother. Tatsuya was luckily too busy getting excited over the scar on Takao’s leg, which she showed off proudly like a battle wound, to even notice Kagami. Kuroko kept rubbing his shoulders silently and Taiga slowly relaxed.

“What, you don’t want to touch the scar, little friend?” shouted Takao in shock.

Kagami and Kuroko turned around to see Murasakibara scoff and call it gross. Taiga smirked, unreasonably pleased with the kid’s reaction.

“Save it, Takao,” he said. “This kid likes only two people in the entire world. One is Tatsuya, the other is Kuroko, for some strange reason.”

“I’ll have you know I am very likeable, Kagami-kun,” said Kuroko, pulling on his ear. “Only idiots like you are immune to my charm.”

Kagami blushed, flustered for some reason, and before he could spectacularly put his foot in his mouth, Tatsuya jumped on his lap with a grin.

“Taiga, can I go to Atsushi’s?”

Kagami hummed thoughtfully. He felt like his brother deserved to be grounded for the stunt he pulled, but the idea of having him off his back for a while was so incredibly tempting. Besides, Tatsuya wasn’t as dumb as him and he knew he messed up. Of course, just because he knew it was wrong, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t do it again in a heartbeat, but that was just the kind of person his brother was – protective, passionate, loyal. How could Taiga ever punish him for that? Plus, the idea of having a night to himself after a day like that was just too alluring to pass up the offer, consequences be damned.

“With the sleepover and everything?” he muttered.

Tatsuya nodded enthusiastically and Taiga thought for a second that he was an awful big brother, if the relief he felt was anything to go by. It was somehow slightly more comforting than thinking that Tatsuya simply knew how to manipulate him even better than Kuroko. He pretended to consider, enjoying the poorly-hidden, hopeful glances Murasakibara was casting at him from his table.

“I promise we’ll spend _all day_ thinking about what we did and _repenting._ ”

Taiga clicked his tongue. “What did I say about being a smart-ass?”

“You said not to be a smart-ass.”

“You’re being a smart-ass again!”

Tatsuya giggled and writhed on his lap as Kagami started tickling him with a vicious grin. “I’m sorry!” he wailed.

Somehow, Taiga knew it was also an apology for skipping school, and Tatsuya simply used this as an opportunity not to lose face in front of Murasakibara and Takao. He rolled his eyes and ruffled his brother’s hair, lifting him from his lap and dropping him to the floor.

“Fine, you can go. But you two are _not_ going alone.”

“I could take them, if you don’t mind,” offered Kuroko. “Murasakibara-kun likes me better. I’ll call Kise-kun.”

“No need, Kuroko!” boomed Takao, slinging her arm over Kagami. “I’ll stay. It’s not that busy here anymore. Besides, I’m bored at home and could use some catching up, too!”

“You didn’t want to take _my_ shift,” mumbled Taiga, mildly offended.

“Well, I also like Kuroko better.”

Even Murasakibara chuckled at that and Kagami simply gave up. He pushed Takao away and nudged Tatsuya in the direction of the door. He thanked Kuroko and traditionally stuck out his tongue at Murasakibara before slumping down on the chair with a heavy sigh. He groaned when the bell chimed, announcing another customer, but Takao patted his head and greeted them without fussing.

Taiga dozed off, exhausted and relieved at the same time, and startled when Takao sat in front of him, placing her tea on the table and rubbing her leg with a soft groan. He didn’t really know how to small talk, so he asked the first question that came to his mind:

“Why Takao?”

Takao giggled. “It’s my family name, dumbo! Just because I married a Midorima, doesn’t mean I wanna be called one.”

“So why did you marry him?”

That was probably one of the dumbest questions Taiga could have asked, but the thoughtful expression on Takao’s face seemed to say otherwise. Still, they weren’t exactly friends so asking a question like that all of the sudden was pretty weird. Takao hummed softly, shifting in the chair and sitting more comfortably, taking the pressure off her broken leg.

“I love him, I suppose?” she said, in an unusually serious tone. “You know, he was on a basketball team in high-school and I was the manager. He was the bane of my existence. The coach made me personally responsible for the ace. I didn’t like him very much back then. I’m not sure I like him _now_ most of the time. He’s weird and rude and that horrible, dreadful horoscope of his…”

She smiled so _fondly_ and it made Kagami feel uncomfortable and jealous at the same time. She sipped on her tea, looking outside the window for a moment before turning back to Kagami. He felt uneasy, not seeing the usual confident smirk on her face, instead looking at small, almost sad simle.

“Do you know what it’s like to realize you love someone you dislike?” she chuckled suddenly. “I cried all night when I first did. I thought, well done, Takao, way to make yourself miserable for the rest of your life. Because I knew even then, that it would be for forever. It’s a big deal for a high-school student, you know.”

Taiga frowned, because he didn’t know, but he nodded anyway. Undeterred by his obvious confusion, Takao laughed happily.

“But I’m happy,” she said with conviction. “So yeah, I love him and I married him. Against all odds, against his parents. It didn’t matter to us that we were too young, or anything. You just _know_ these things. Star-crossed lovers whose zodiac signs are compatible – that’s us. Did you know he slept in the hospital all the time I was lying there in the cast? He’d never call me pretty but he’d do that. I kinda cannot _not_ love him.”

Kagami cleared his throat in discomfort at her fond tone, shifting in his seat, and Takao burst out laughing. She apologized for making things awkward and teased him for being so easily flustered. He was saved by his phone vibrating in his pocket.

“Kuroko is coming back,” he said. “You can go. I don’t know, go home, be with your hubby, or whatever.”

Takao chuckled. “Don’t mind if I do. Maybe I’ll sext him for a while when he’s in class. I’ve gone a long time without sex, you know.”

“Ugh, now I do,” groaned Kagami, hiding his face in his hands. “I should just go back to America…”

“Just don’t forget to take Kuroko with you,” said Takao, patting him on the head over the table. “You’ll die without him.”

Taiga grumbled, slumping down on the table, which made her chuckle; then again, almost everything did. Takao silently stood up and started getting ready to leave, allowing Kagami to think. Not that he particularly wanted to, after a conversation like that, if you could even call it a conversation. 

He was fine with how his life was now, he didn’t really want to change it. He had his own business, his little brother _mostly_ stayed out trouble. He even kind of liked his friends, as unusual a bunch they were. He definitely liked Kuroko. So there wasn’t much to mull over – he was good, no need to overthink anything.

And when Kuroko walked in and smiled at him gently, Kagami _definitely_ didn’t want to think about how it made him feel.


End file.
